These ancient aircraft are very tricky to fly. Pictured above is a replica 1911 Curtiss Navy seaplane (first seaplane for the Navy), which went down on Keuka Lake in upstate NY on July 1 this year. The pilot was a retired airline pilot who survived the crash. The aircraft has controls that are not intuitive and probably contributed to the loss of control on short final. I imagine Wright's planes were just as tricky to fly. Curtiss was a keen competitor of the Wrights.